The Prevalence of Thyroid Disease in the Children and Teenagers in Iodine-Deficient Region

Abstract

To indicate iodine intake and the prevalence of thyroid disease in the iodine-deficient area we perform complex investigation of 2332 children and teenagers in 23 settlements of Sverdlovsk region. Studying population consisted of1153 7—8 years old children (599 girls and 554 boys) and 1179 14—15 years old teenagers (637 girls and 542 boys). Study protocol includes thyroid ultrasound for all children and urinary iodine excretion for younger group and, serum TSH, AT-TG and AT-TPO in older group. The incidence of diffuse goiter was 22.8% and median of urinary iodine excretion was 53 μg/l. We found that Sverdlovsk region is a mild iodine-deficient area. The incidence of significant thyroid diseases is relatively low (thyroid cancer, functional autonomy and overt hypothyroidism — in 0.04%, nodular goiter — 0.26%, autoimmune thyroiditis with subclinical hypothyroidism — 0.6%). There is no significant difference in the prevalence of thyroid disease among children and teenagers. We found that thyroid ultrasound is not a reasonable screening strategy for thyroid cancer and nodular goiter in pediatric population of the iodine-deficient region. We consider that the most reasonable screening strategy is the palpation technique.